i'm erin burnett. american embassy attacked. a suicide bomber struck at a security checkpoint at the american embassy in turkey today, and this time the white house immediately labeled it an act of terror. >> a suicide bombing on the perimeter of an embassy is by definition an act of terror, a terrorist attack. however, we do not know at this point who is responsible or the motivations behind the attack. the attack itself is clearly an act of terror. >> an act of terror regardless of who is responsible or what their motivations are. more on that in a moment, but first, chris lawrence at the pentagon. chris, the turkish government says it does have a bit more sense of who the attacker was, what are they saying? >> reporter: erin, they think it is a man named etchvech shamly. they say he trained in europe on how to make bombs and has attacked before. the group is a throwback to the cold war, a far left revolutionary group that wants to overthrow turkey's government and establish some sort of communist state. >> and why would they